She’ll bake you a show-stopping bespoke wedding cake, a luxurious celebration cake or even a box of cupcakes, each designed to look like a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Luisa Pringle, owner of Love from Luisa Cakes (previously Abeille Bakery) is a unique artisan baker based in Brighton. She baking’s answer to flower-loving Mexican surrealist artist, Frida Kahlo, for her floral celebration cakes that use bold colours, adventurous floral decorations and exciting flavours. Think vanilla sponge with rum-spiked icing, cappuccino Kahlua sponge with hazelnut, espresso icing, lemon and mint with rosemary.
Let’s drool over and find out more about our modern-day Frida’s creations…
Her signature luxury cakes – called BouCakes – are designed and styled to look like beautiful bouquets of flowers, decorated using hand-painted dried fruit petals, fresh berries and seasonal edible flowers. “I wanted to create botanical inspired cakes that look like a piece of nature. Cakes that although are well thought out and curated, look natural and effortless. I also want the decorations on the top to add texture and a hint of sweetness,” she tells me, as I stuff a cupcake into my mouth, smile politely and try to take notes.
Each of these edible works of art is made with love in her little “micro bakehouse” called Love from Luisa Cakes, which she runs from her home in Brighton. “I’m not interested in working in an industrial-size kitchen to create mass-produced cakes that fly out of the door in a few hours. My cakes are a labour of love and made with care and attention to detail, which takes time.”
She’s been baking since she was 11 and her style has change over the years. “At first, I would make ambitious three-tier cakes that were covered in chocolate and totally decadent if not a little wonky due to my lack of experience!” she says. “Baking professionally taught me how to batch bake productively and price products. Working as a pastry chef for a small cafe, I continued to develop my own style and techniques.”
Initially she looked to Instagram for inspiration. “I got obsessed with colourful drip cakes, pioneered by Unbirthday Bakery in Australia, but then became fascinated by cakes from The Bakemonger in Frome decorated using dried fruit.”
Being locked down in 2020, gave her time to reflect on the direction of her micro bakery, at which point she decided to rebrand from ‘Abeille Bakery’ to ‘Love From Luisa’. “My focus is still on creating luxury cakes in a sustainable way, using eco-friendly and forward-thinking botanical ingredients such as herbs and spices, and wasting as little as possible. But I decided it was really important for people to know who was making their special cake.”
As well as her signature BouCakes, she also creates more modern buttercream cakes, signature celebration cakes decorated with fruit petal twists, and mind-blowing wedding cakes.
Drool over all of Luisa’s incredible creations at Love From Luisa Cakes here and here.
1 Comment
My birthday cakes were delicious, thank you…